HR question about Job Description

[Suzann]

Is it ok for a company to not allow you to have your own job description? I can go look at it in HR, but not take a copy for myself, or have it emailed to me. Is this normal?

 

[Moana of Motunui]

Yes. The girl in my unit had the same issue so she took a picture of our job description/salary and that was allowed by HR.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Okay? Probably.

But I've never worked for a company that withheld that information. In fact, most places give you a copy when you take the job.

 

[Marchand63]

I am betting in private sector - probably. In government & union jobs the are usually publicly posted.

 

[bcla]

Never really heard of a "job description" in any private sector job I've ever had. Maybe there was something written up by a manager for posting a job listing, but other than that it was doing whatever the manager asked. In my experience HR rarely had a clue what anyone really did in any kind of technical job anyways.

 

[Suzann]

Thank you everyone that replied! I work in the marketing department of a bigger company, and I'm having my first evaluation cycle with them. My raise (or no raise) is determined if I did my job duties as assigned on my job description so it's weird to me to have the job description to be so secretive when I need to know what goals to hit throughout the year.

 

[ronandannette]

Thank you everyone that replied! I work in the marketing department of a bigger company, and I'm having my first evaluation cycle with them. My raise (or no raise) is determined if I did my job duties as assigned on my job description so it's weird to me to have the job description to be so secretive when I need to know what goals to hit throughout the year.

I'd go look at it at HR and make sure you tell them exactly why you are doing so. Use pretty close to the exact same words you did here.

 

[pearlieq]

That seems odd and not a little shady. Not exactly the kind of company culture I'd feel passionate about. What are they afraid of?

 

[bcla]

Thank you everyone that replied! I work in the marketing department of a bigger company, and I'm having my first evaluation cycle with them. My raise (or no raise) is determined if I did my job duties as assigned on my job description so it's weird to me to have the job description to be so secretive when I need to know what goals to hit throughout the year.

My experiences have been that expectations and goals were given at an initial performance review, and then whether or not they were met was assessed at the next review. That's a typical manner of doing it in my industry.

 

[Allison]

You can access any of our job descriptions through our portal and annual evaluations are tied to them.

 

[disneychrista]

There are not actual formal job descriptions for our Company. You are expected to do "your job" and other duties as assigned.

 

[Lynne M]

I worked for a big multinational company, and we had a portal where we could view not just our job description, but all the others (and their pay scales) as well, at any time. They encouraged internal mobility, so they wanted employees to check out other opportunities in the company. Reviewing the job description was part of our annual performance review, too.

 

[RedAngie]

While we have formal job descriptions at my company, almost every listing includes "other duties and tasks assigned by supervisor."

 

[amberpi]

I've never not been able to get a job description, and I'd use them and my previous evaluations not infrequently just to make sure I was remembering to do everything that wasn't right in my face that second. Of course, additional assignments as needed, etc. I'm sure when you explain why you're wanting it, HR will be more than happy to provide you a copy. You sound like a good employee that they'd want to encourage!

 

[Suzann]

Thanks again for everyone's responses... with my company you're to do what your job description does, if you're doing more than your supervisor is supposed to add that to your job description and you get compensated for it (say I was doing print marketing, and then all of a sudden digital marketing was added, I would need to be compensated for it... just an example) It's a different skill set with different pay. That's why the job description is important. I will ask HR to see my job description today so I can type up my self eval. There were no goals set in the first year as you're learning your position and the company. When I applied for the position, there was no job description... just a 3 sentence job overview and in the interview, they talked more about the job duties and if you fit into that role.